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The Pittsburgh Pirates are beginning to shrink their spring training roster as Opening Day approaches.

On Monday, the Bucs announced several players being optioned to Triple-A, and others reassigned to minor league camp.

Eight moves were announced, most notably right-handed pitchers Antwone Kelly, Thomas Harrington, and Wilber Dotel sent to Triple-A Indianapolis, signaling they are highly unlikely to make the team. 

Kelly was one of the most impressive pitchers in the organization last season, going from unranked in MLB Pipeline’s Pirates Top 30 to ranked No. 9 this season. 

In 25 starts between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona, Kelly earned a 3.02 ERA, a .206 opponent batting average, 1.06 WHIP, and 116 strikeouts in 107.1 innings. 

Kelly, 22, owns a 65-grade fastball, 50-grade slider, and 55-grade changeup on MLB Pipeline’s 20-80 scale. He is one of 20 pitchers on the Pirates’ 40-man roster.

Harrington made his MLB debut last season but struggled mightily, allowing 15 runs in 8.2 innings in three outings. 

In two spring training outings, Harrington allowed a solo home run and struck out two in six innings, earning a 1.50 ERA. He’s a former Pirates top 10 prospect who now ranks No. 14 by MLB Pipeline and will be a key part of the Bucs’ depth this season.

Dotel ranks one spot ahead of Harrington and had a breakout season in Double-A. In 27 starts with the Altoona Curve, Dotel earned a 4.15 ERA with a .234 opponent batting average, 1.23 WHIP, 43 walks, and 131 strikeouts in 125.2 innings.

The Pirates put Dotel on the 40-man roster this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Dotel, 23, owns a 60-grade fastball, 50-grade slider, and 50-grade sweeper.

Pittsburgh also optioned right-handed pitcher Brandan Bidois and outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez. All five are on the 40-man. That’s the reason for the difference between being optioned to Indy or outrighted to minor league spring training.

We have made the following roster moves. There are now 54 players in Major League camp. pic.twitter.com/Wgg9WSQKqn

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 9, 2026

The Pirates reassigned right-handed pitcher Khristian Curtis, catcher Omar Alfonzo, and utilityman Mitch Jebb to minor league camp.

Pittsburgh will play in Queens against the New York Mets on March 26 to officially begin the 2026 MLB season. 

The 2026 World Baseball Classic continues, with the championship game on March 17.

The Mets and Pirates start the season in front of a national TV audience on NBC, beginning at 1:15 p.m.

Spring training continues tonight for the Yankees, with Pittsburgh coming to George M. Steinbrenner Field to face off with the Bronx Bombers. A considerable chunk of the Yankees’ roster is occupied at the World Baseball Classic—albeit with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and José Caballero now about to head home with their teams eliminated— but the Yanks are still throwing a perfectly cromulent lineup out against Pittsburgh, with ace Max Fried taking the mound for his second start of the spring.

Fried debuted this spring against Caballero and Team Panama on March 3rd, tossing three scoreless innings in the exhibition and throwing 56 pitches. We’ll see to what extent he surpasses that pitch count tonight. Last season, Fried threw seven distinct pitches. With that kind of a repertoire, it will be worth seeing what Fried chooses to work on in his second outing of the spring.

For Pittsburgh, José Urquidy gets the ball, also making his second start of the spring. The veteran right-hander (and former Houston Astro) has missed virtually all of the past two seasons due to injury, so despite having been in the big leagues for several seasons, these are invaluable reps for Urquidy.

The Yankee lineup tonight is replete with legitimate big leaguers to face off with Urquidy and whoever follows him out of the Pirates’ bullpen. The top half of the lineup is really just missing that Judge fellow who is off captaining Team USA. Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton form an imposing, albeit lefty-heavy one through four in the lineup. Elsewhere, NRI and fourth outfielder candidate Randal Grichuk makes his spring debut, playing left field. And Oswaldo Cabrera, recently returned from an awful ankle injury, holds down the keystone.

March baseball is still baseball. Go Yankees and stay healthy.

How to Watch:

Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field — Tampa, FL

First Pitch: 6:35 pm EDT

TV broadcast: Gotham Sports App / Sportsnet – PIT

Radio broadcast: 1001. FM/KDKA-AM 1020

Online stream: MLB Network (out-of-market-only)

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, X, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Max on the mound at GMS 👊#RepBXpic.twitter.com/wHZnaYHN4P

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 9, 2026

Bucs go to Tampa.

📺: @SNPittsburgh
📻: KDKA 100.1FM & 1020AM The PRN pic.twitter.com/P1Zy1m0Uf0

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 9, 2026

It’s impossible to land on just one definition of the word ‘success’ in anything, let alone in the world of sports. Success as a concept to the Boston Celtics and New York Yankees is a vastly different bird than success to, say, the Cleveland Browns or Colorado Rockies.

Success to the Cincinnati Reds, at least as the franchise has devolved over the last trio of decades, has limped to meaning just slightly more than not being terrible.

You’ve begun to remember specific seasons and specific rosters who simply finished with a winning record. You recall each and every player brought in on a waiver claim or non-roster deal who actually netted the team more than 0.0 WAR. You don’t have to remind yourselves that Buster Posey’s grand slam and Pirates fans abrasively chanting ‘Cue-to, Cue-to’ were actually the good times of the last 30 years, the times this club dared participate in league-sponsored postseason activity before hibernating again for the winter.

If that run of form continues any longer, we’re going to begin to remember the 2025 Reds the way we recall 2013, 2012, 2010, 1995. They did make the playoffs in a full 162 game season, after all, even if they snuck into a superexpanded megaplayoff bracket with a barely .500 record (and were summarily dismissed immediately). The 2025 Reds made the playoffs, and around these parts that’s damn near tattoo-worthy. As the cobwebs envelope those 2025 memories, it will be hard for anyone to forget the most essential plays that allowed them to sneak into the postseason, since every single one of them mattered when the season’s final day came down to the slimmest of margins in the standings.

The one that stands out most, I think, is Noelvi Marte robbing Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds of a 9th inning homer at home in GABP, bailing out closer Emilio Pagán (who’d left a meatball over the plate to the Pirates lone decent hitter with the game on the line). It preserved a 2-1 victory and moved the Reds to 81-78 on the season with just a series left to play – that’s the bottom line of it – but it also seemed to somewhat validate the odd series of moves the Reds had made in the run-up to that moment.

Marte, of course, came to the Reds in the 2022 blockbuster that saw Luis Castillo head the other way to the Seattle Mariners. He was a shortstop then, a bat-first guy with elite athleticism who seemed to be just about as can’t-miss as they come. His defensive issues moved him to 3B shortly after arriving in the Cincinnati system, however, at the time a move generally considered to have been made thanks to the presence of each of Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, and fellow former Mariner Edwin Arroyo at short. His bat then carried him through to the muddled mess that was the hot corner situation at the big league level in late 2023 only for an 80-game PED suspension to torpedohis 2024 season entirely.

Then came 2025, a year where his bat played decently despite an oblique injury that once again put him on the pine. His glovework, though, became a serious issue once again, and barely after having filed Jeimer Candelario into the 3B Sunk Costsof the Reds folder next to Mike Moustakas, Cincinnati splurged, again, on a 3B at the trade deadline by picking up Ke’Bryan Hayes and the long-term contract that came with him. That pushed Noelvi off 3B for good, and despite his complete lack of experience there it’s what put him in RF that day in GABP to be in position to rob Reynolds of a homer and ‘save’ the Reds season.

It worked! The grand plan had worked!

The Reds had picked up a pristine defender at 3B and Marte was going to stick in RF just fine!

Heck, given his offensive upside, he’s a lock to be the RF of both the present and future now!

The catch, while brilliant and ‘season saving,’ put a loose patch over some more significantly glaring issues, however. While Marte was brilliant in August after the initial move, he stumbled terribly down the stretch last season while hitting just .186/.215/.275 (.489 OPS) in 107 PA over his final 25 games. Noelvi, a right-handed hitter, was positively abysmal against LHP all season long, hitting just .232/.288/.274 in 104 PA against them to the point where manager Terry Francona has made note of them in his 2026 season preparation.

Catch against the Pirates aside, the surface info here suggests a guy who’s still very, very raw in RF whose offense – which is supposed to be a calling card – still hasn’t lived up to its billing. On top of that, he’s a guy with pretty glaring reverse platoon splits on a team that a) spent the winter bringing in two more left-handed hitters who could probably use a platoon partner (JJ Bleday and Nate Lowe) alongside the already-rostered Will Benson and b) threw Eugenio Suárez’s bat into the mix in a way that, with Sal Stewart around, will make Spencer Steer’s right-handed bat much more available in outfield corners when needed.

So, when you read things like this from MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon on March 9th, it’s hard not to wonder just how strong Marte’s grip on the ‘everyday RF’ role really is, or should be.

Bleday, Benson, and Lowe have all out-hit Marte this spring. Bleday and Benson both are talented, experienced career outfielders with boatloads of experience in RF. Dane Myers, acquired from the Miami Marlins over the winter, has already been out-hitting Marte, provides plus defense all over the outfield, and came in with a reputation of specifically hitting left-handed pitching with aplomb.

Against RHP, it’s hard to imagine an outfield combo of Steer, TJ Friedl, Bleday, and Benson having the most consistent two-way floor. And against LHP, it’s hard to question an outfield spread of Steer, Friedl (whose .770 career OPS against LHP is actually better than his .754 mark against RHP), and Myers.

And if that’s the case, well, I’m not exactly sure where Marte fits right now in all of this – at least for right now.

He’s still just 24 years old. He’s still just barely played RF, and his speed and arm and athleticism makes you pretty comfortable with the idea that he’ll only get better there with rep after rep after rep. But he’s also a guy with a pair of options left, and 2026 sure does look like one of those rare years where maybe, just maybe, the Reds might win more games than they lose despite already being without Hunter Greene for a time and the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers looking ever-so-potent in the NL Central.

So, it could be another one of those years where every play, every decision could be the difference between sneaking into the playoffs or finishint ever-so-short. With that much on the line, it’s hard not to wonder whether starting Marte in AAA as the team’s everyday RF for a few weeks – or maybe longer – until he begins to wow the way a top prospect seeking a promotion should is anything other than the most prudent decision Cincinnati can make in the next two weeks.

Even if we all will never forget that catch.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. New York Yankees, March 9, 2026, 6:35 p.m. ET

Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field, Tampa, FL

How to Stream: Gotham Sports App

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the New York Yankees looking to grab a win.

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David Wright says he was “excited” and “surprised” when new Mets third baseman Bo Bichette asked if he was coming to spring training and if he had a few minutes to talk.

“Good one to reach out to, right?” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Bichette’s overture to the club legend.

Wright, who logged 13,924.1 innings at third base and won two Gold Gloves during his career, isn't sure what direction the meeting will go with many areas to hit on with the offseason signing, including handling the pressures of playing in New York, but he should have something to offer Bichette, who has played all 6,184 innings of his career at shortstop.

“I’m excited to spend some time with him,” Wright said. 

Wright said that spring training is "incredibly important" with the Mets having several new faces and players taking on new positions, like Bichette, but also to get to know each other off the field, as well.

"You have a locker room full of veteran guys, All-Star caliber players, guys that are one their way to becoming Hall of Fame-type players, and I think that you use this time in camp to get to know one another, not only on the field," he said. "But you have guys playing new positions, so it is important for Bo to know [Francisco Lindor's] tendencies, it's important for [Jorge] Polanco to learn tendencies of feeling comfortable [with the other infielders]."

Mendoza said all of that represents the “importance of having guys like that” in camp.

“He was elite at the position,” the skipper said of Wright. “And that fact that he’s here around, anything that he can share to Bo is gonna go a long way. Just building that relationship is going to be super important.

“And the fact the’s going to be able to pick his brain, face-to-face instead of over a phone call, David is gonna have an opportunity to watch him take some ground balls and just provide some feedback immediately. That’s gonna go a long way.”

Earlier this offseason, the former Mets captain said he had little doubt Bichette could handle the hot corner.

“If I could do it, anybody could do it; it shouldn’t be that hard,” Wright said in January. “But he can pick it and is such a great athlete -- I see it being a seamless transition.”

And on the Mets’ captaincy front, Wright addressed Steve Cohen’s comments about how the club “will never” appoint a team captain under his ownership.

“To me, that signals that there's a lot of leaders in that clubhouse,” Wright said, adding that while he just arrived in camp on Sunday, he’s known the Mets have “a group of leaders” in the locker room already, knowing Lindor and Juan Soto for a few years. 

“That is just as good, if not better, than having a single leader,” he said of the current setup. “To me, times change, it makes sense when you have the veteran group that they have in here, especially with some of these young guys, where that group can get together with these young guys, these top prospects, and say, ‘Hey, this is kinda how we’re gonna do it.’

“And I think that’s what made the success that we had when I played, it seemed like those clubhouses had a group of leaders that would, starting now, let these young players know this how we play the game, this is how we carry ourselves, this is how even you as a younger player can lead by example, and I think that’s what’s going on right now.”

Wright added that it “all starts” with Mendoza, who he thinks does a great job of having his “finger on the pulse” as the manager and collecting the veteran players to “police the clubhouse.”

Cohen said that his view is that “the locker room is unique and let the locker room sort it out, year-in, year-out.”

“There'll never be a captain. I've felt that way all along,” he said at the start of spring training.

Mets lineup

1. Mike Tauchman – CF
2. Luis Torrens – C
3. Carson Benge – RF
4. Tyrone Taylor – LF
5. Ronny Mauricio – SS
6. Ryan Clifford – 1B
7. Christian Arroyo – 3B
8. Vidal Brujan – 2B
9. Hayden Senger – DH

Zach Thornton – LHP

Marlins lineup

1. Xavier Edwards – 2B
2. Connor Norby – 3B
3. Christopher Morel – 1B
4. Heriberto Hernández – LF
5. Maximo Acosta – SS
6. Kemp Alderman – RF
7. Daniel Johnson – CF
8. Brian Navarreto – C
9. Andrew Pintar – DH

Tyler Phillips – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 6:10pm EDT
TV: SNY

After some deliberation, Tarik Skubal is sticking to his original plan to return to Detroit Tigers spring training after his lone appearance in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa announced on Monday, March 9.

Skubal, the Tigers' back-to-back Cy Young winner, is a free agent after the 2026 season and had always planned to return to spring training in Lakeland, Florida after making his start on Saturday against Britain.

But in the days before the tournament, Skubal stressed how much he was loving the experience and hinted at a plan to regroup with the national team in Miami and at least be a cheerleader. And after his scheduled outing on Saturday in Houston, Skubal explicitly said that "things have changed."

"When you get into these environments, when you get this team, it’s hard to walk away from that," Skubal said after tossing three strong innings in the Americans' 9-1 win over Great Britain.

"I didn’t expect these types of emotions to run through my brain or my thoughts to differ. I was pretty committed to making a start and getting back to camp," Skubal said. "Things have changed, obviously, that’s why I’m going to have some conversations to try and figure out a plan for me."

Skubal, 29, is expected to sign the richest contract of any pitcher in MLB history this winter, perhaps approaching $500 million and his USA teammates were more than understanding about his plan.

“He's got the two Cy Young awards, but this guy's about to make half a billion dollars here in the next offseason,’’ three-time MVP and Team USA captain Aaron Judge said. “So, for him to put it all on the line for his country, and come out here and show up for us. ... You know, maybe it is just one game, but you know there's a risk with everything you do, and for him to take that risk and come out here and be with us, the boys love it."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tarik Skubal won't pitch again for Team USA in World Baseball Classic